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I love my children. They are my life. What I don’t like (sometimes) is their unending curiosity about all things electronic… and by curiosity I mean their inability to not touch my things – like my cellphone, my tablet or my beloved Nikon L810.

On a recent trip to the Clearwater Aquarium (which was actually closed due to the filming of Dolphin 2), I discovered that one of my Darling Little Ones had dropped the camera and that it was now out of warranty. *sigh* Then calling around, I discovered that it was going to cost more than a brand new Nikon to fix! Grrrrr!

So cue me trying to decide what to do. Get a new camera or fix the old one? Today I finally decided to get a new camera – after all we have Christmas, a trip to Disney and a drive across country in the next 6 months, not to mention our move to Australia in June/July of 2014. I was so happy because Target has the Nikon L820 on sale for $199. Well… apparently this has been popular because they were out… in all the Targets within 50 miles of us.

Color me depressed 😦

What they did have was the Pentax X-5. A commensurate bridge camera that should be awesome for all the events listed above and for documenting all our holiday craftings 🙂

So far, I am impressed with the picture quality – and I had such lovely little models to test it out on!!

Earlier this week, thanks to the folks at BzzAgent.com, I got one of these cameras in the mail to test out with my girls. It was perfect timing, as I had been looking online for a camera for my middle three, and this, I hoped would fit the bill.

We LOVE it.

H1 spent a lot of time just sitting and going through all the different animations and cartoon photo add-ons you can use.

What is that strange thing under your nose Daddy?

Thank you… thank you very much…

Does this hat make me look silly?

SWAK!!

G1 really is a little chicken!!

A very merry Unbirthday to you…

Yes N1… you really are cute

We also spent a lot of time playing with the projector option. G1 loved seeing pictures of her sisters and dad show up on the wall.

(Sorry for the blur – it’s hard to hold a camera, laugh and take a picture at the same time).

Over all – we have been very happy with this camera. It’s a good child’s camera. Below I will list the pros and cons and from there you can make up your own minds.

Pros:

Easy to use – large enough for small hand to hold securely

Fun to use – the animations and cartoon add-ons have provided hours of entertainment for us so far.

Sturdy – H1 dropped ours the first night we had it and I thought the camera would be doomed. It worked just as well as before – no problems!

Bright colors – I actually preferred this color combination… why make a toy like this gender specific?

Good image quality. Personally, since there is no way that this camera is expected to be a top of the line Nikon, Olympus or Coolpix like my baby, I was not disappointed in the fact that some pictures came out a little over exposed.

The projector option was the best part! N1, L1 and H1 have spent literally hours (and a lot of batteries) watching their creations on the walls. So much happiness and giggling!

Cons

No USB cable included. It has literally taken me three days to find a spare USB cable that I could spare and that would fit. If I had purchased this item retail, I would have been willing to pay a little more (around $3) to have one included in the box. The USB is needed if you want to take the pictures your little ones have taken and send them to family member around the world.

No flash. My biggest frustration. This camera does not do well in low light/dim rooms. Something my girls can’t seem to understand. There has been some upset over what they felt would be the most perfect picture EVER not coming out because of it.

My next biggest con was the fact that it is a battery eater. We are on our fourth set of Duracells now. I suppose this wouldn’t be a huge issue if you had rechargeable batteries, but I think it would be nice if the camera itself was chargable like my point and shoot.

All in all we’ve had a wonderful time with this camera. I would fully recommend it for ages 3-7 as a birthday or Christmas present. However, as with all things, research and make sure you understand it’s limitations so there is no frustration on the back end.

Note: I was soo excited to get to try this camera out with my girls through the PlaySkool ShowCam Bzz Campaign. A Bzz Campaign is program through BzzAgent that sends free products and coupons to people to let them try out new items and products, thereby harnessing the most powerful form of marketing out there right now – work of mouth and Mommy power 😉